Victoria Terror: Mother and Murderer of us all
by Winstrom Tourniquet the 4th
Summary: Victoria Terror, a so-so 80's punk singer accidentally steals the TARDIS and reinvents the universe. The Doctor takes her on as a companion as community service to write all the wrongs she has inadvertently created.
1. Beginings

The rusty door swung open and the sweaty band escaped the hellish club. The drummer held back the door with one hand and wiped his brow with the other.

"Shit that was some crowd. We're liable to catch some big wig attention if we keep packing the kids like this every night."

"Get over yourself Liam, I don't expect this much of a following every night." Victoria Terror admitted as she lit a cigarette.

"You might not see it Vicky but we're hitting it big time right under your nose." Joshua the guitarist pointed out.

"You jerks want to hit the pancake house? It's on me tonight." Liam asked his band mates.

"Nah I'm good." Victoria spat. As the two men left her in the alleyway she mused to herself whether or not she was in fact becoming famous without noticing. Leaning against the brick wall she looked around her. "This place is a dump, how can they think we're anything in this universe." She thought. If the alley had one good feature it was that above it was an amazing view of the stars above. Victoria stared at those stars and contemplated how small she was compared to the countless spheres of burning gas that rotated in the vast inky emptiness of space.

That's when Victoria Terror put out her cigarette on the blue box that stood out against the rest of the alleyway. It wasn't very eye catching, but it did appear somewhat out of place in the dated alley. "Someone must have moved it back there from inside the club." She thought. But to Victoria's surprise, a tall man wearing a blue suit came out of the box.

"Oi then, watch where you put that out. This is my baby." The mysterious man barked at her. His accent was distinctly British. After locking the police box door behind him he walked across the alley and plucked a paper from out of a trash pile. "Hmmm. September 1984… Philadelphia… must have taken a wrong turn on Epsilon V."

"That's trash weirdo…. Pretty old trash at that it's October now." Victoria corrected the funny man.

"Ah, well, September, October tomato, tamoto. That doesn't really matter this year. But what does is this: I'm the Doctor and this is my favorite blue box. If you're keen on sitting out here I'd rather you not touch it." The Doctor ordered.

"Whatever asshole." Victoria recoiled at the man's introduction. The Doctor walked out of the alleyway and started down the street in one direction but then decided on the other.

After her second cigarette, Victoria walked around the lonely alley and found herself in front of the newspaper 'the doctor' had been looking at. She picked it up and glanced at the front-page article, a puff piece about some lawyer on a hot streak, city crime at an all time low, yada yada yada. The most interesting aspect of the old paper was what lay under it. The police box key! "He must have dropped it…" Victoria chuckled.

She immediately unlocked the police box door, not knowing what she would do to the strange man's 'baby' only that she would find a way to vandalize it. After swinging the door open Victoria's jaw dropped at the sight before her.

There was a room inside the booth-sized box. A full sized room, with an impossibly intricate console at its center. Victoria slowly walked into the room almost automatically. The control panel looked old and worn, but featured lights and keyboards that were undoubtedly futuristic. "I've got to show this to Andy, he'll be able to make sense of this shit." Victoria nodded. Andrew her brother was the only person in their apartment building with a computer, and probably the only person in Philly that would believe any U.F.O. story you fed him. "It's a phone box right? There's got to be a phone somewhere in this mess." She reasoned. After picking up what appeared to be a receiver, Victoria dialed her apartments phone number on one of the keypads.

That's when Victoria Terror stole the blue box. A strange whirling sound came out of the machine and the door swung shut. Victoria fell over as the entire box swung in violently in a circular motion. When finally the commotion subsided Victoria pulled herself to her feet and found her balance. Everything had become very quiet. "This is enough, I'm out of here." She muttered. Swinging the door open to another surprise, the outside world had vanished. There was nothing but space, black inky nothing with not a single star to be seen. Victoria stuck her head out into the nothingness and uttered a single word: "Fuck."

That's when Victoria Terror initiated the big bang and created the universe. The sheer velocity of the event slammed the door shut, knocking Victoria against the console. "Shit, I've really fucked up this time…" She muttered to herself. Climbing back in front of the control panel she instinctively dialed 9-1-1 and held the receiver steady to her ear. The machine made the same sound as before and begun once again to whirl around and around. Victoria made sure to hang tightly to a handle bar that lined the bottom of the console. When the spinning had subsided, Victoria swung the door open to find the alleyway just as she left it.

"Don't you American's listen?! I said don't touch it and now look what you've gone and done!" The Doctor, who was standing on the other side of the alley with his arms crossed yelled.

"Look guy I am sooo sorry, I had no idea." Victoria began to apologize.

"No you haven't the slightest idea what you've done you fool. Your actions have changed all of time from right under your nose." The Doctor lectured.

"What, what do you mean by that?" Victoria asked.

"I mean, you just stole my time machine and popped yourself over to the beginning of time, the most sensitive time in existence, and whatever you've done there has an underlying effect to the rest of history." The Doctor waved his finger at the punk singer. And before Victoria could begin to mutter the phrase 'Time Machine' the Doctor grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the blue box.

"Time Machine?" She asked.

"Well… space too." The Doctor admitted nonchalantly. "Anywhere and anytime, just so long that you don't change anything so that might change anywhere from happening. You follow?"

"Not exactly." Victoria shook her head. The Doctor ran his hands across several keyboards, and overhead screens lowered themselves to eye level and flicked on. The displays on the screen were in an extremely foreign language to Victoria, the strange words flowed from top to bottom endlessly as the Doctor stared and shook his head.

"Whatever you did sure created quite a mess. The list goes on and on, lots of little things, tiny alterations. A big thing here and there, a missing planet, wait what's this… ah bloody brilliant you've gone and changed the flavor of Coke."

"I'm…sorry?" Victoria stared at the screens that were apparently tattling on her. The Doctor wiped his brow and continued to stare.

"Ah. Just Ah. Just wonderful, you've done it now!" he bellowed slamming his fists on the handrail.

"What happened!?"

"You've changed the ending of Lost." The Doctor muttered.

"What's that?" Victoria raised an eyebrow.

"Island, polar bears, great big mysteries, my favorite. Never mind you're an eighties girl right? You'll find out…"

"Is there anything I can…" Victoria began to offer feeling bad for the strange man and his screens.

"Oh there certainly is, you're coming with me. We are going to rewrite every wrong you've written and get the universe back on track. Every last difference."

"Hey man I don't have time for stuff like that I've got a life,"

"Not any more you don't. Consider this community service for the universe that you've taken the liberty to edit without permission." The Doctor demanded as the screens kept scrolling, until one of them paused and began to blink red. A shrill alarm sounded.

"Oh great, major difference detected… We've got to go NOW." The Doctor began to race around the console flicking switches and turning knobs.

"I'm trying to tell you I can't just leave I've got…" The box began to swirl and tilt and shake just as it did before. Outside in the alleyway the blue box slowly faded into the night and vanished along with several of the stars above.


	2. The missing star

"So what's this major difference then?" Victoria asked the strange man who called himself the Doctor. At first he ignored her, as he circled the console pressing different switches and typing in several complicated codes into a numeral pad. Finally he pulled one of the many receivers that lay on the dashboard to his mouth and yelled 'Friday' into it. "Excuse me, but what's so important on Friday?"

"Ah nothing that bit was just for fun." The Doctor wiped his nose. "We're going to a missing star, and it's very important that we restore it."

"Why's that?" Victoria asked with the feeling that she was going to spend most of her day asking things to this odd man. The Doctor breathed heavily onto one of the overhead monitors and cleaned off the screen with his sleeve.

"It's an important star, and so are it's planets." He mentioned as he pulled a pair of thick rim glasses out of his breast pocket. "You see, many, many years after you and everyone you know dies, humanity has exhausted the earth of it's resources and in the end the planet turns on you. The sun itself slowly begins to fade and the surviving humans are forced into exile. The star system that is supposed to be here will one day be the first glimmer of hope for those humans lost among the stars."

"Aha, so uh… what exactly did I change that un-made the star?" Victoria asked as she pretended to understand one of flashing indicators. "And how exactly do we fix things?" At this question the Doctor paused. He stopped dancing around his control panel and took a seat on a revolving stool that stood just out of reach of the console.

"Well, that's the thing. It isn't as if we could go back to when you first made the change and stop you from doing so, since the act of preventing your action would still somehow influence the universe's creation."

"How about we go back even further and stop you from parking your box in my alley?" Victoria suggested.

"Never works, just to easy, wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey." The Doctor shook his head. "Nope, we'll just have to correct things one at a time, and for this star we are going to have to make it ourselves. Now, what was your name? And you wouldn't happen to know how to make a star now would you?" The Doctor broke form and asked his own question, (Two in fact.)

"Victoria, Victoria Terror, and no I do not."

"Terror? That's not what your mum calls you is it?" The Doctor argued.

"Terrene, Terror is just the stage name." Victoria admitted.

"Lovely, pick it out yourself did you."

"Well how about you 'Doctor'?"

"As a matter of fact I did so. Make people all better I do, take that how you like, but unfortunately for you my name isn't 'Star Engineer.'" The Doctor removed himself from the stool and ducked under the console, when he reappeared it was with a large dust covered book in hand. The volume landed on top of the console with a thud and the Doctor's face winced for a second. He blew the dust off of the cover, revealing a symbol of sorts: A constellation, in the shape of a telephone.

"Is it really that simple, we'll just phone an engineer to make us a star?"

"If it were that simple I would just ask one of the half dozen I've saved over the course of my life. Unfortunately this is a job for only the best, and He doesn't much care for me." The Doctor thumbed through the wrinkled pages and found the entry he had been searching for. "Ah old Sakko, let's hope he still exists after your little screw up, Vicky."

"Hey it was an accident jackass, and plus if he didn't exist any more then why would he still be in the phone book?" The Doctor breathed a sigh at this and explained:

"This phone book travels with me through time, and now so do you. Time travellers and their belongings don't get overwritten when something in history is altered. Make a note of that."

The TARDIS appeared out of thin air, as it always did, but this time in front of a cottage at the edge of a seemingly endless meadow. The Doctor and Victoria climbed out of the blue box and started down the dirt road towards the cottage.

"Doctor, the sky it's blood red!" Victoria gasped, looking up towards the stars.

"Sky's red here, we've landed on Diyanoid, welcome to another planet Miss Terror."

"A-another planet…" Victoria choked. After a moment of silence she shrugged and muttered. "Whatever, still sucks as much as earth."

"Oh what's wrong with it?" The Doctor objected.

"It's just the same old shit, nothing interesting, no flying cars."

"Always with the flying cars you lot. They aren't that great you know. Never liked any cars, now boxes I could talk for days about the appeal of proper box…" The Doctor smiled, adjusting his glasses. "Now, Victoria, I expect nothing less than your best behavior… you're representing the human race from this moment on." The Doctor lectured. He rapped on the door and a moment later a large housefly answered. Victoria went white, which was only a shade paler than she usually was, but you get the point.

"Ah, Ah, it's a-a a giant…" Before she could finish the Doctor clasped his hand over her mouth.

"Ah, yes, hello Sakko old boy. Remember me, this is Victoria, Sakko, Victoria, Victoria, Sakko." The Doctor induced the pair. Still shaking Victoria managed to fake a smile.

"What do you want Doctor?" the fly hissed.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd help us out for a tick, we've got a wee little star system that needs restoration. If you wouldn't mind of course."

"What's in it for meeee." Sakko groaned.

"Uh whatcha want?" The Doctor offered.

"My daughter, Pernart…" Sakko began.

"Captured by cultists? Space pirates?" The Doctor asked.

"…She lives with her mother, I just want to see her."

"Right, shouldn't take a minute. Vicky you stick around, I'll be right back." The Doctor announced, before Victoria could object he was already in front of the TARDIS. To Victoria, it hadn't appeared to have moved at all, but almost instantly the Doctor ran out of the TARDIS, his coat tattered full of holes. "Victoria, I may have forgotten to ask, but how fast can you run?" Before she could answer the Doctor yanked her arm and they sped past the cottage and down the dirt road towards a village that was nearly engulfed by the shadows of the mountains before it. "That Sakko, always a liar…well, not really, well a bent truth, well… I should have seen it coming, damn fly."

"What happened?" Victoria yelled to the Doctor, trailing steadily behind him.

"I told you he didn't fancy me at all, and I was right. He just tried to kill me!"

"But I thought he wanted you to find his daughter?"

"I should have figured it out when he told me her name, the females of his species don't have names. At least not that anyone would know about."

"Why's that?"

"Any man who gets close enough to them gets bitten to bits. There are literally millions of tiny fly daughters in the swarm behind us." As they reached the village, the cloud of flies seemed to dissipate and swarm upwards into the sky. Victoria and the Doctor ducked into a little shop that was just off the beaten path enough that anyone looking for them would be hard pressed to find them without being seen themselves first.

"I knew there was something wrong with that Sakko guy, thing." Victoria muttered while sipping an alien tea. "Is this whole planet full of those?"

"No, just old Sakko. Retired here, a cozy get away from his murderous wives and his billions of daughters. We'll have to come up with another way to make a star without Sakko, he won't speak with us again." The Doctor shook his head.

"Well what does it really take? I'm sure if a deadbeat dad whose an insect at that is so good at doing it, us humans should have no problem making one from scratch."

"Vicky that's it! Ugh I'm so off today. I've forgotten why Sakko's lot is so proficient at star crafting. It's the children! Sakko has no use for them but to use for his work… no wonder he left them behind when he retired." The Doctor stroked his chin in contemplation. "Oh and I'm not human…" he muttered under his breath. Victoria spat out her alien tea.

"Wh-what!?!" She managed.

"Not human, doesn't matter, what does is the plan."

"You've got a plan then?" Vicky asked, wiping the spit off her shirt.

"No, but I'll have one once we reclaim the TARDIS. Come along then…"

…

After circling over the village and surveying the area, the Doctor decided on a route through the forest that would lead back to the TARDIS. Night fell quickly on the town and under the starless sky the pair made their way into the wilderness. Victoria had been hiking through mountains as a child, but this alien planet was completely foreign to her. She silently followed him through the thick bush that lined most of the wilderness.

"Doctor it's almost pitch black, maybe we've gone too deep into the forest. We should go back…"

"Oh Victoria," The Doctor chuckled. "You'll learn quickly, that I never go back, I never turn around." He produced from his pant pocket a curious device. It looked to Victoria like a fancy astronaut pen like her brother Andy had all the way back at home. But it was more complex than it appeared. The Doctor twisted the strange device and a blue light came out of the tip of the strange pen. "Sonic Screwdriver, a million uses and always up for improv." The Doctor joked. Victoria stopped in her tracks.

"What are you then?"

"What's that?" the Doctor asked.

"Back at that shop, you told me you weren't human. You look human enough, but if you're not than what are you?" The Doctor shrugged at this.

"Victoria, you've been in a blue box that goes in outer space and to yesterday. You were perfectly fine visiting the beginning of time and kicking things off early with your own choice words. Why after all that are you so freaked out about me being from Pluto?"

"So Pluto then? What's it like on that planet?" Victoria took a step back as she questioned the Doctor.

"Firstly, Pluto's not a planet, at least not to you… really insensitive you earthlings. Size doesn't matter you know, secondly I'm not from Pluto, look count my arms. I'm…" Victoria leaned in closer.

"Your what?"

"I'm from a long time ago." The Doctor shook his head. "I swear I'm irrelevant at this point. Just a lonely old man with a screwdriver and a box."

"You don't look old…" Victoria commented.

"Oh I'm over 900 I'll have you know."

"Shit I hope I end up looking that good when I'm 900." Victoria laughed.

…

Just before daybreak they reached the TARDIS. The Doctor crept up to it very slowly, and motioned Victoria to follow him. Once inside He motioned that it was ok for them to discuss the plan.

"I kept thinking about what you said, about Sakko being able to make his stars from scratch. It doesn't work that way there has to be some kind of energy transfer, that's where his daughters come in. My guess is that he some how harnesses their kinetic energy to build the star. We've got to trick them into following us back to into space."

"How are we going to do that?"

"Simple. I tie you to the front of the TARDIS and just as the swarm is an inch away from your pretty little face I'll lock them in place with a second layer air corridor, Then we'll warp into space and I'll begin to harness their power."

"Your not serious about tying me up are you?" Victoria asked.

"Well unless you have another source of meat to lure in the swarm." The Doctor shrugged. "Normally I wouldn't ask this of you… but the others usually volunteer by this point."

"Others? You've had other people along with you? What happened to all of them, you dangle them in front of space monsters too?" Victoria sneered.

"Only the really crude ones." The Doctor mocked her.

…

Minutes later, Victoria Terror found herself tethered to the blue box she had once taken for a joy ride to the start of the universe. A thick mess of countless flies were swarming towards her, and safely inside of the box was a have crazy alien with a habit of omitting personal details when volunteering her for danger. Needless to say Victoria was terrified.

"They're on me!" She called to the Doctor, who responded immediately with the flip of a handle brake. The TARDIS took off with the bait and catch locked onto it. An instant later and they all were in the middle of space. The same lifeless spot where the future human's second home was to be. The bugs were curtained off from Victoria by an invisible force field, they did nothing to ward off the millions of flies but they did create the illusion of a wall between them and Victoria. Her eyes grew wide with fear as she stared at all the flies crawling on the wall, covering the universe that existed just beyond the swarm. The Doctor pulled her back into the TARDIS and slammed the door shut.

"Now for the tricky part." He said to himself.

"That _wasn't_ the tricky part?" Victoria critiqued the man who she was becoming more and more certainly insane.

"No, now that we've got them all here, how exactly are we to harness their power into a star?" The Doctor leaned over the console, staring deeply into the monitors. "Think, think. What does that bastard Sakko do to make stars? Why does he need billions of daughters? Daughters who are literally killing machines, insects who are never given names—"

"What is it?"

"That monster. Oh Sakko you bloody monster."

"Doctor what is it?"

"He burns them out, one by one until their all nothing but ash. They must be nothing but a resource to him. That horrible little insect." The Doctor bit his lip in horror. "We can't do it, we can't be like him. I won't be responsible for another genocide."

"God you're full of surprises aren't you." Victoria groaned. "The secrets you keep could fill a planet." The Doctor's eye grew wide with inspiration.

"Or spark a star!" he shouted.

"Wait, what? Your just reaching now man… how can secrets make a solar system?" The Doctor slammed his arm against one of the coral looking pillars within the TARDIS, lowering a spiral staircase from the ceiling. Racing up to the next floor with Victoria just behind him, the Doctor made his way to the library. He grabbed an arm full of books and chucked them over the railing. The books fell just short of the ground, an artificial gravity field blocking them from hitting the floor. "What are all those for?" Victoria asked.

"My journals, memories. I've lived such a long time and I mean really lived. These experiences aren't just special to me, but they have a strong psychic radiation field. Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Whimey. Any way you cut it, if I shared just one memory with each of these girls they'll absorb the psychic energy and have enough power to remain alive after forging the star."

"That's pretty cool." Victoria nodded.

"Pretty cool, Vicky, it's far out!"

"Okay, now I believe you're 900…" Victoria Terror laughed.

…

And it appeared as if a billion fireflies lit up the small pocket of space around the TARDIS. Their shimmering swarm created a radiant star that shown down onto the earth and blinked at the lonely alleyway where Victoria Terror once met a Doctor.

…

"So it can't get much worse than that can it?" Victoria asked. The Doctor clicked away on his keyboard and muttered to himself as he traced a line on a screen with his glance. "I mean, a missing star, there can't be much harder tasks than that, right?" The Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Not again…" her groaned.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just so boring by now. There is one event in history that just won't stay put. It's the most frequently iritic moment in time."

"How's that?"

"Time's always repeating, the same events are constantly being relived over and over. Always the same, well for the most part. This one man, very much like myself simply refuses to die no matter how many times he's killed." A light blinked on the screen.

"What are you saying?" Victoria crossed her arms.

"We've got a Lincoln Alert!" The Doctor smiled, tapping his finger on the screen…


	3. Let Living Lincolns Lie

"What are you doing?" The Doctor peered towards Victoria Terror from over the TARDIS console. The eighties native, (who was probably missing band practice.) was collecting several thick books off of the floor of the time machine.

"This place looks like hell. You just left this shit here after we made that star…" Victoria muttered as she flipped open one of the books.

"Now who said you had permission to look at…" The Doctor scowled.

"Oh what's this then…" Victoria grinned.

"It's probably nothing, best you leave that where it was…" The Doctor commanded. Quickly he shot off of his stool and scooped the remaining hardcovers from his new companion. "Maybe if you had asked. These aren't terribly important you know." he explained. "Always moving forward I am. Never looking back."

"Then why do you have so many journals?" Victoria laughed.

"We have work to do you know. Another one of your historical wrongs to right and we can't have you going out into the 1860's looking like that."

"What? And you're just fine how you are…" Victoria argued.

"Good old pinstripe, 'suitable' for all ages." The Doctor popped the collar of his coat and then clapped his hands high above his head. From the edge of the console room a door that was tailored to appear like the rest of the wall swung open. Victoria followed the Doctor as he skipped down the absurdly long hallway lined with framed photos of thousands upon thousands of human faces.

"Are these all your companions?" Victoria pointed at all the pictures.

"Not all of them. People I've helped out once or twice. From all over space and time they are. Mind you that's just a percentage of them, there are many more who I couldn't get an image of. Some of them, I couldn't help." He placed his hand to his mouth.

"Doctor, you're a liar. You pound your chest and yell forward but you've got so much baggage. Quit with the act already." And then came the silence.

"Well, the dressing room's right through here…" The Doctor swallowed his throat. At the end of the hall were several doors, and behind the leftmost door was a sizable walk-in closet. The walls inside were made of cupboards and closet doors, in the center of the room was a long rack stuffed with clothing of every description. Victoria dragged her fingers across the coat hangers as she walked passed the space suits and other various period outfits. "1860's right here!" The Doctor announced, appearing instantly in front of the appropriate attire. After selecting something a bit too modest for Miss Terror she gave up looking for something similar to her usual boots and torn tees.

"Well then, fuck off…" she shooed The Doctor off.

…

"Here we are! April 1965, it's just about Easter in Washington D.C." The Doctor announced as the TARDIS doors swung open. Victoria Terror exited the blue box in a black pinstripe gown and joined the Timelord outside. "Bold wouldn't you say?" he smirked.

"…all ages." Victoria murmured as she flicked the Doctor's suit. The TARDIS had been parked in an alleyway just out of sight to Main Street. "So what's the plan?" She asked.

"Simple, we've got to kill Lincoln."

"But he was a good guy right? I mean he freed the slaves…" Victoria asked, recalling her grade school geography.

"Good or bad, time is time and his death is important to history." The Doctor nodded.

"Then how come he lives every now and then? Doesn't at least Lincoln deserve another chance?" Victoria pleaded.

"Can't risk the consequences. You see Vicky, when you kill a man you kill everything he will ever do, in some cases anything is decedents might. Let him live and there is a whole heap of potential mishaps."

"But…"

"NO BUTS! I've had it up to here with the buts. It's part of Timelord law and I'm bound to it."

"Timelord, huh, is that who you answer too? Your race?" Victoria spat.

"Not any more…" The Doctor looked down. Once again the silence crept in.

"Is, that what you meant when you said you wouldn't be held responsible—"

"For what might come tomorrow if Lincoln is still alive and at the helm of America. Now, I can't do this all at once, I've prepared this," The Doctor interrupted and revealed an envelope from his breast pocket. "You'll take this invitation to the White House and deliver it." He handed her the envelope.

"But why would they let me—" She was once again interrupted. He produced from his pocket a thin wallet containing a single sheet of paper.

"Psychic paper, wave it at the Union soldiers and they will let you pass no problem." The Doctor pointed down the street, "Off you go now."

"But what about you Doctor, where are you going?" Victoria demanded.

"I've got to start the show!" The Doctor winked.

…

"That bastard, why won't he give it a shot?" Miss Terror growled as she marched through the avenue towards the White House gates. She paid no mind to the locals who stared astonished by her presence. "He said time is constantly re-happening. Even if he's supposed to die why can't he live just this once to see how things would turn out?" She stopped at the gate. "The only reason I'm here with him is to correct history. If it's a mistake to keep Lincoln alive then we'll just have to fix it again." She ripped the envelope in half and then again. Leaving the tattered tickets in the street. A minute later and the Union guards were escorting her inside the White House…

Elsewhere, a stocky man with a tiny moustache was swearing over his morning paper. All around him were men with the same disposition, grouchy at the president's name across the headlines.

"Mark my words, Powell. The next time Lincoln makes the front page it'll be his obituary. The time for capture is long past due, it's murder and mayhem for the Union by daybreak." He raised his glass. The surrounding men followed suit and they cheered to conspiracy. The bar they were dining in had one other patron, a hung over fool who was mumbling to himself in a stupor. The bar door creaked open and a man in a pinstripe suit entered. As the Doctor passed the drunk his whispered,

"You'd better appreciate this Andrew, you don't deserve it but America is yours in a few long days." The Vice President could only respond in a snore. As the Doctor made his way to the group in the back he put on his usual demeanor. "Well hello there sirs, is there a mister John Wilkes Booth among you by any chance?" The Mustached man stared piercingly at the Doctor.

"Who's asking?" the man sneered.

"Certified mail, Jonathon Ford sent me from the theater."

"I am Booth." The stocky man sipped from his mug. The Doctor pulled yet another envelope from his pocket and handed it to Booth. His twisted grin grew as his tiny eyes scanned the letter front to back. "This is it boys. Tonight's the night; Lincoln is set to appear at the theatre tonight. With luck I'll be able to dispose of him and that bastard Grant." He sipped deeper from the mug. "Powell, you and Atzerodt will simultaneously handle other targets." Booth's mustache was tipped in foam. The Doctor backed slowly away from the table, his head held down. As he held the door open for himself he glanced back at Johnson and then up at the sky.

"I hope you're happy." He muttered.

"Mister President, this girl brings urgent word from—" The Union soldier began. Victoria Terror pushed past the bumbling guard and stood directly before Abraham Lincoln. Tall, and thin the President looked somewhat pleased, Victoria would not have been able to know that just days before he was stressed to the point of madness.

"Philadelphia, um… your honor." Miss Terror cut in. Lincoln rose from behind his desk and his full height could be easily known. Victoria handed the President the psychic paper. "As you can see, right there, in the uh… address. General Grant requires your advice at the… well, just down the street." At this the President folded his arms. He was silent a moment and then he lowered his eyes to the girl.

"Yes, everything seems to be in order. As fate would have it my schedule is free tonight, since that damned Johnson is off somewhere likely skunked. Gatemen, this lady will escort me to the General." He waved the soldier away. The President donned his hat and coat and was shortly following Victoria Terror out of the oval office. As they made their way through the streets, the same people who gawked at Victoria stood in awe of their President. "Ma'am I hope you have a good explanation for this charade." Lincoln warned.

"It's totally a matter of life and death dude." Victoria assured Lincoln as they came into view of the TARDIS.

"Oh not this again." Lincoln laughed as he stood before the police box.

"Really?" Victoria blurted. She plucked a small silver key from out of her boot and unlocked the blue door. The President eagerly climbed up the front steps of the time machine and made himself at home in the control room. "uh, so you know the Doctor?" she asked.

"Our first meeting was before the war. Delightful fellow, clever too." Lincoln grinned, pouring himself a drink from a faucet that Victoria had not yet noticed in her travels through space and time. "So am I to assume you are his assistant? Where is the chap anyway?' Lincoln asked the girl from the future.

"Well, you see that's the thing." Victoria paused, considering how to most delicately put the next sentence. "We've come here because he's convinced you have to die…" She choked.

"Every man has his day where he must die." Lincoln nodded.

"But the Doctor means tonight!" Victoria tried to express the gravity of the situation. Lincoln put his glass down.

"I have had, strange dreams." The President admitted. "I have seen a funeral in the White House, the President assassinated."

"Then you know why—"

"It must occur, if it is preordained then I will not stand in the way of fate." Lincoln nodded. Victoria threw her hands up in the air.

"But you don't understand, your death doesn't help at all. America falls into the hands of that Vice guy."

"Johnson may have his demons, but I am sure that when greatness is thrust upon him he will…"

"Get fired, his whole term is a joke, sir. Come with me." She grabbed his hand and led him up a spiral staircase to the library. It appeared even larger than it had upon Victoria's last visit. She traced her finger across the covers of the leather bound volumes until she reached the entry she desired. "Here" She threw the text at the President. He sat in one of the luxurious chairs in the corner of the library and read intently. When he was finished he slammed the book shut. Silent for a moment he lost all smugness in his face.

"This is to be the future without me?" Lincoln asked, pointing at the book he had just read. Victoria nodded. "I cannot accept this. My country elected me into a second term merely a month ago. I will not ignore their wishes, for the hope of the people is lost on my successors."

"I thought you might think that way. Okay, I've got a plan to sort this all out. First of all, the Doctor can't know anything about this. He won't budge on the you-have-to-die scenario. We'll have to hide you away here in the TARDIS. I'll lure him back here before the whole assassination deal and we'll all shoot off into the future."

"Are you sure this plan is plausible?" Lincoln stroked his beard.

"It'll work… but first we need to phone a friend."

…

The curtain was just about to go up at Ford's Theatre. The Doctor passed the lobby furiously, attracting the attention of the ticket holders.

"Where is that girl? Where is Lincoln? I knew she'd try and mess things up… typical first time human gone back in to the past. 'Oh I think thing's id be betta if only the wheel hadn't been invented in order with fire', no way that would effect the Thank God it's Friday lineup." As he continued to mutter to himself Victoria Terror came into sight.

"Doctor!" she gasped. Racing towards him she explained herself. "There's been a problem, He refused the tickets."

"What? How could he, this is terrible. What reason did he give?"

"He sorta shoved me out, but I overhead he was meeting some Grant guy tonight by train." At this the Doctor put his finger to his mouth and thought a second.

"This might work…the event might change, but at least the outcome is the same." He muttered.

"What do you mean?" Victoria wondered.

"Well, I've just told Booth that Lincoln's supposed to attend this play. He's got this whole scheme to do away with the President during the third act. If I tell him to hurry he can derail that train…" The Doctor mused. "It'll be a presidential car so there won't be many others besides him aboard, chances are not everybody will die. Victoria you have no clue how pressing this is on my soul. How the Timelords handled situations like this is beyond me, I've spent too much time on this planet to overlook death as a means to an end."

"We could always just let him live…" Victoria suggested.

"Can't happen, didn't happen, won't happen. Fixed point in time has to happen." The Doctor ran backstage without noticing Victoria biting her lip. Racing through the backstage and through the tiny hallways that were the inner workings of the theatre the Doctor finally caught sight of Booth.

"Excuse me, sir!" The Doctor called. Booth was jumpier than before at the restaurant. After recognizing the Doctor as the messenger from earlier he stopped.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" He sneered. The Doctor gritted his teeth,

"Sir, I have received word from President Davis himself that Lincoln's presence here tonight is a deception. Sources say that Lincoln is to meet Grant via railway. Our forces have prepared a interception point…" The Doctor lied.

"Hmm, just as before when Lincoln was expected to appear at the Hospital but instead attended ceremonies at my own hotel. This is quite like Lincoln's security to leak a decoy schedule." Booth bought it. "Where exactly will the interception point be?"

Out in the lobby, Victoria waited for the Doctor to return from backstage. Still catching eyes from onlookers, Victoria leaned against the wall. When the Doctor appeared it was in frenzy. He rushed to her and she followed him out of the theatre.

"We're done. Booth knows about the change of plan and history is back on track." The Doctor glanced into Victoria's eyes. "I'm sorry we couldn't save him, I'm so sorry. He's a great man, well, was. Lincoln. The great emancipator, he's a legend, A symbol of freedom for an entire race. Victoria I have to tell you, you aren't the first one…"

"First what?" She asked inattentively.

"Just about every person who's face is on that wall back in the TARDIS wanted to change the past. Save a life, a town, a planet. It breaks my heart when I have to be the one to say no, but it's for the good everyone. Time is so complex, that when some event or someone keeps defying what it wants, there are horrible ramifications."

"Don't you change things every day?"

"I do, but I think that's what I'm here for. As a Timelord, the last of them, I have to shepherd the universe from discourse. Stopping things like today. It's almost never easy." As the made their way down the street and into the alleyway, Victoria thought for a moment about her secret plan to save Lincoln.

"Could I be wrong?" she thought. But before she could delve deeper into the matter they were inside of the TARDIS. "What now?"

"I'll just pop into tomorrow really quick. Then it's off into the 2000's," The Doctor explained, turning a knob on the control panel. The TARDIS made its usual roar and when it was finished there was a soft 'thud' at the front door. "Just a second." The Doctor opened the door and fetched a newspaper that had been delivered just then. "Well, looks like it worked…" He said as he spread the front page across the control panel.

PRESIDENTIAL TRAIN CAR TOPPELED, PRESIDENT LINCOLN FOUND DEAD

"Look's like it." Victoria muttered. "Well, if we aren't staying in the oldies any more I'm going to change." And with a clap the doors to the wardrobe room appeared from out of the TARDIS wall. Victoria stepped through the hallway, and looking at all the pictures lining the walls she couldn't help but smile. Once in the walking closet she found her own outfit and dressed herself. She knocked on one of the fitting room doors and Lincoln appeared from within. "It's done." She informed the President, who was still dead to the world.

"All that's left is to take back the White House…" The President nodded.

"It shouldn't be a problem, we're headed into the future next." Victoria explained. Victoria returned to the control room and the Doctor did his usual whirl around the console and the parade of lights and sounds that followed shot the TARDIS into tomorrow…


	4. Recount

A screeching roar echoed across the alleyway, as well as across time. The TARDIS a for the most part inconspicuous blue police box materialized into the alley just out of anyone who should step near its' way. The front door swung open and a tall man in a long brown coat and equally brown pinstripe suit walked out of the box. Behind him was a pale dark haired girl in a torn shirt and tight jeans, (and boots that were probably to big for her.) They left the alley and met the streets. The Doctor, as with every TARDIS landing was quite pleased to be walking the earth and enthusiastic to interact with it's inhabitants. Victoria Terror, a struggling punk singer from 1984 saw that light in his eyes but was unforgiving of the horror he believed himself to have just committed. Out of the TARDIS came a third figure. Tall, proud, and iconic, Abraham Lincoln had just avoided his own assassination. In defying a fixed point in time anything could go wrong if this man were to set foot into the future, but set foot he did, into a sea of strangely dressed people walking in a hurried fashion with their concentration all placed in mysterious plastic bars that they held to their ears and typed upon. Lincoln knew that the future would hold such curiosities but Washington was the most important matter…

"Can I go home?" Victoria asked the Doctor, who was scarfing down a grinder. "You said the years only 2000 something right? My band and brother should still be in town." She explained. The Doctor nodded and pulled another strange device from his pocket and handed it to his companion. "What's this thing?"

"It's a phone." The Doctor explained. "Does this taste strange to you?" he offered her his grinder.

"This is crazy. My brother always talked about phones all being cordless in the future but this thing is small!" She grinned. "err how do I dial out?"

"Just touch the screen it responds to different hand gestures."

"Woah…" That's when Victoria Terror decided to never return the phone to the Doctor. "What exactly are we doing here officially by the way?"

"I've already told you, I think this grinder is off…"

Abraham walked cautiously down the street. All around him were people too concerned with their own digital amusement than take notice of a dead president a foot away from them. The buildings he passed were worn and tired, the shops that occupied the buildings were noisy and full of electric lights. One shop was full of moving picture frames and instantly captured Lincoln's attention. He entered the property and stared at the picture frames of various sizes that lined the walls. Upon inspection they each had their own living portrait inside that not only moved, but spoke as well. Abraham examined them all individually, until he heard one mention Washington. After observing the picture, Lincoln discovered that the current President was a man named Bush and unfortunately for him his approval ratings weren't very high.

"Now, I don't know precisely how far into the future we are going, but chances are you won't believe a lot of the stuff you see there. There are a lot of revolutions that take place after your time and you have to understand that things change." Victoria whispered to Abraham in the closet. "I think we're going to Philly though, so you won't be that far from the White House, can you manage to get back on your own?" She asked.

"Surely I will manage." Lincoln insisted.

"This is the place." Victoria announced, with her eyes still glued to the GPS display of the cellphone. The Doctor and his companion were standing in front of a town house just minute outside of center city. The Doctor rang the doorbell and they waited. A minute later a chubby man answered the door and leaped at Victoria.

"Vicky! I can't believe after all this time you're still alive!" Andrew gasped.

"Yeah I'm alive alright… I've just ben abroad with this guy." Victoria pointed to the Doctor. Andrew put his sister down and glared at the Doctor.

"Boyfriend?" he cracked a knuckle.

"Hell no, he's in my new band…" Victoria lied.

"Oh, alright then… I guess you've been underground then. Not like the last bunch of guys." Andy motioned his guests up the stairs, his house was a lot nicer than Victoria expected.

"What you mean Liam and Josh?" Victoria asked. "What's up with them?"

"Are you kidding? You must have been waaay underground sis, they're huge!"

"What!"

Elsewhere Abraham was having trouble commuting to Washington. With no paper money to buy train fair, he was forced to walk his way out of the city and perhaps find a coach to ride out in. He made his way through Philadelphia studying all the new technology that he was surrounded in and the monumental structures that engulfed him. Eventually he found himself in front of monumental building. Parked just outside of the building was a large bus that looked like a futuristic train car to Lincoln. A small man who Abraham recognized as Benjamin Franklin stuck his head out of one of the windows.

"Hey, Jerry, get on the bus you're holding everybody up. We're supposed to be in Washington tonight." The re-enactor called to Lincoln. Abraham decided that this odd carriage was his most likely means of reaching the capital and boarded it. The bus was full of historic re enactors, several who were dressed exactly as Lincoln was. The bus pulled into the street and made its way towards Washington D.C.

"I can't believe it!" Victoria Terror gasped in front of the screen. Her old band-mates Liam and Joshua were actually on television in a music video. "This is what happens to them?" Victoria pointed at the screen to the Doctor.

"This is where they've wound up, remember you disappeared all those years ago. Didn't expect them to give up the dream did you?" The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the screen. It emitted a low buzz and the channels on the television began to change.

"Hey I was watching that!" Victoria barked at the Doctor, who was now resting his feet on the coffee table. "Switch it back, it was important!"

"Important you say, I suppose so, but do you ever reckon why music is important?" The Doctor chuckled. "Music's a product of the musician, and the musician is a product of his society, and that society is just the latest model standing on top of all the previous ones. The expression isn't just personal, but it speaks for itself for all of time."

"What does that even mean?" Victoria groaned.

"It means the taste if off…" The Doctor muttered.

"If you're still complaining about that cheesesteak I swear…"

"I'm not complaining, I'm telling you that there is something wrong with the food. I think we should go and find the chief…"

"We aren't doing anything, I've got to find my old band." Victoria boasted.

"Fine, miss out on all the fun…" The Doctor sighed.

"Excuse me, sir. This area is off limits to tourists…" The man in the black suit waved to Abraham. "Excuse me, sir, I'm serious." He continued, placing his hand firmly on Lincoln's shoulder.

"I am not a tourist, I am the President of these United States and I am here to carry out my term." Lincoln stated confidently. The man in the black suit smiled and a few other men dressed likewise appeared behind him.

"I'm sure you are, Mr. President. My mistake, please go upstairs." The man motioned Lincoln towards the White House staircase, his smile growing.

"Yes, of course." Lincoln nodded. "No harm done." As he reached the first step a splash of electricity ripped through Abraham's body. The Man had shot Lincoln from behind with a stun gun.

"Collect this wacko…" The man spoke into his headset.

"Health inspector, John Smith." The Doctor announced flashing his psychic paper around the counter. "Who's in charge here?"

"That'd be me." A large greasy man burped. He wiped his hand on his stained white shirt and held it out to the Doctor. "George."

"Right." The Doctor stared down at the man's fat hand, almost afraid of it. "Health inspector, I need to see where you keep your cheese."

"Come 'round back." George waved his hand to a doorway on the other side of the counter. "I'll be out there in a minute." The Doctor found his way around the outside of the building and stood outside of the back door for a minute, and then another. After tying a shoe and smelling what time it was, the screen door swung open. As the Doctor turned around, the large man swung a two-by-four upside his head. The Doctor hit the ground like a sack of bricks, and the giant man carried him into the back of the diner.


End file.
